Monday, June 20, 2011

Father's Day weekend

Hi Folks, Spent the last two days guiding for trout and smallmouth bass.  Nice weather front has cooled things off, but also presented some wind issues yesterday.  River water temperatures have remained in the low sixties and levels are still slightly higher than the seasonal average.  The lake I was on yesterday morning with the boat was 68 degrees on the surface.  Saturday the trout fishing was pretty decent as we fished a river that holds lake run fish.  We landed 3 rainbows with 2 of the fish being wild trout.  The largest of the bunch made some spectacular leaps out of the water.  Streamer fishing was in order with no bug activity and the fish unwilling to eat nymphs.  A crawfish pattern seemed to be the ticket. All of the fish were holding in deeper pools and rose to eat the streamer fly.  The smallmouth fishing was pretty darn good yesterday morning before the wind really began to blow.  We were on the water fishing by 5:30am and fished surface flies the entire time.  We found smallmouth in usual places like big rock points and humps.  The fish were holding on the deeper sides of the points.  Also, fished some old wood that was abutted by random large boulders on a drop off.  You could see the smallmouth come up in the water column and eat the fly.  A blue and white foam slider was the most productive fly and most of the strikes came when the fly hit the water or after the first movement of the fly on the surface.  Good surface takes with lots of jumping.  We landed 9 smallies and missed or lost another 7 fish.  No monsters yesterday, buts lots of action.  I am taking today off from fishing after a week straight and will be back after the trout tomorrow am.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy